


Pull Me Off This Pedestal

by Cryptkeeper (orphan_account)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 17-Year-Old Harry, Dark Harry, Deathly Hallows AU, Dumbledore Dies, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Harry Potter is a Horcrux, M/M, One Shot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 05:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5527226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Cryptkeeper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dumbledore is dead and Harry Potter couldn't be happier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pull Me Off This Pedestal

**Pull Me Off This Pedestal by KissTheBoogeyman**

** **

Humans are silly unpredictable beings. As a result, sometimes even the best laid plans don't go the way they were supposed to, and sometimes they do until they can no longer be dictated by the one that put them in motion.

When the first of September comes many people wait with bated breaths to see if their school has been overtaken in their absence. Harry Potter and his two best friends are on the train, a silent wall of support for all, offering quiet words or solemn gestures for those who need them. The majority of them had expected that the Boy-Who-Lived would be off on some grand quest to find a way to kill Voldemort, so his presence is simultaneously a little daunting, much appreciated, and completely unexpected. They stand a strong united force, an army against the dark, and they bravely enter the grand hall.

Voldemort is sitting at the large throne-like chair the Headmaster has always sat in, a fearsome vison of grotesque bone pale snake like features, cruel eyes like blood staring upon the suddenly frightened crowd in a way that suggests he is the only one there who knows the punchline of a joke not yet told. His death eaters sit in all the other chairs, their usual teachers no where to be seen.

"You are late my dear." he calls out, beckoning someone near them, and the students look around but see no one beside themselves.

Then Harry opens his mouth. "And you promised me the world." he says.

And what could he mean by that? The students suddenly feel sickening dread as Voldemort smirks. "Is this not a good start?"

Harry gives him a slow smile as he walks away from the students toward the Dark Lord. "It is, my love." he says, and leans in to press a kiss to the lips of the man who they all thought he hated.

The entire school gasps in horrified betrayed shock. Hermione falls to the ground with a cry like she has been wounded. Ron stares at his old friend in shock. "How could you betray us like this?" he yells.

He shakes his gead. "I have not betrayed you!" he declares. "I made a deal on your behalf. With Dumbledore dead there is no more need of bloodshed. I have saved you."

"He was a good man!" Hermione screams. "Dumbledore fought for us! He trusted you."

Harry James Potter laughs, and it is cold and bitter. "Albus Dumbledore took my pride, my dignity, and my hope. He took from me, and took from me, until I no longer existed." he snarls. "You people put me on a pedestal, the one he set me upon, and never once asked if I wanted to fight for you. I never wanted a war."

"Dumbledore wouldn't have done that!" a few students yell.

Again he laughs. "He raised me as a sacrificial lamb." he says. "I have to die at the end of this war. You fickle superficial people rely on me to do everything. I don't even like more than a handful of you. What makes you think I want to die for you?"

Ginny speaks up, the bravest of them all. "Then we will kill you!" she says. "If this war ends with your death we have no choice. No one would miss a traitor."

Harry stretches his arms out wide. "Do it!" he challenges. "If you want my blood on your hands have at me. Just know that you will be joining me shortly after."

Voldemort addresses them. "You should be thanking him." he tells them calmly. "He has effectively ended this war without any unnecessary deaths. You will go home to your families tonight and know they will not be killed anytime soon. He has ordered the end of all death, not for himself, but for you."

"At what cost?" Ron yells. "We get freedom at the price of him becoming your whore. This is not a price I am willing to play for freedom."

Harry gives him a soft look. "I am not his whore." he says soft and reassuring. "I am the one who chose him, while he was reluctant."

"How can we trust you on that?" someone else screams.

"You can't." Harry says. "But then how can you trust anyone?"

"He doesn't love you!" Ginny says. "He can't, remember. He was conceived under the influence of a love potion. He is useing you. Can't you see it?"

The Boy-Who-Lived smiles. "I don't need him to love me." he says, stroking the Dark Lord's cheek. "I need him to desire me, cherish me, and need me. I need him to want to keep me with him forever. What do I need his love for? I love him enough for both of us."

"He isn't good for you." Hermione warns. "You can't keep searching for good in someone when it doesn't exist. You'll see it soon. He has no good. He has no heart."

"I have heart enough." Harry tells her with finality in his voice. "I am the good in him. I don't need you to understand."

Voldemort pulls him closer and then speaks to them. "Go home." he orders. "I command you all to leave. Tomorrow you are free to try anything you wish. Tonight I would have with my husband alone."

No one can try to protest because it is like the castle itself expels them, dropping them all off with their families, crying over the betrayal of their savior. Not one of them can even entertain the thought that this is exactly what he wants.

"Free at last." Voldemort says when they are alone in the great hall.

Harry smiles. "I always expected to feel different." he admits. "Am I supposed to feel like they are right? That I betrayed them?"

"They will come around." the dark lord says. "Maybe it will take time, but they will understand one day. You didn't betray anyone."

"What if they never forgive me?" he whispers.

"Then you will have to be okay with only having me." Voldemort answers.

"Forever?" Harry asks.

"Until the end of time if that is what you wish." he promises.

Harry smiles the first real smile in a long time. "I'd like that."


End file.
